Monthly Archives: June 2010

We had a rather comical arrival in Zambia. I carried my 3 foot tall giraffe, Murphy (don’t ask), wrapped in bubble wrap, and he actually flew in the cockpit on our flight there. Elena accidentally brought her scissors and pocket-knife on the plane. And it was only after we had landed that we learned of […]

In the spirit of USA’s recent win against Algeria, I thought I would finally write a post of our World Cup adventure. First, you have to know that Elena and I had talked about going to the USA-England game, but several attempts at getting tickets had fallen through. A couple days before the game, we […]

We’re making incredible progress. I really hadn’t expected to actually meet all data collection goals in 2 countries, but it looks like we’re on track to do just that. We had our second focus group today and our fourth key informant interview. We’ve got one more of each and then surveys and then we’re done […]

I had planned to take a day to rest and relax…I would sleep in, take a short trip to the Manzini Market, sit outside in the sun to read a book, go for a walk around town, and maybe even take a nap. It was certainly a day off, but not the lazy one I […]

Although we have yet to analyze the surveys for Lesotho, we were very impressed with how thoughtfully and thoroughly they were completed. Even though comments were optional, we got some really great feedback. This was the only thing that kept us going for the last full 3 days late into the night to do all […]

We arrived safely in Swaziland late Sunday afternoon, checked into Veki’s Guesthouse where we met Rose, who takes good care of all the guests. We talked briefly with Rose, who taught us a few essential SiSwati phrases and then went for a drive to locate the Ministry of Health building, so we would be prepared […]

I still can’t believe I pulled it off. One country. 9 days. 5 key informant interviews. 4 focus groups. 10 expert reviews collected (so far). It’s certainly been a very full 2 weeks, and I feel like I’ve got more than enough for a dissertation already with two countries still to go. I honestly didn’t […]

I have now completed focus groups with two hospitals, one mission and one Government. I don’t feel that I’m learning nearly as much at the hospitals as I’m learning from the key informant interviews in terms of actual content. People are talking, and we’re getting some good examples of the benefits and types of issues […]

Last night, Lauren and I drove up to Leribe from Maseru (about 100 km) to stay the night there so we would be closer to the hospital where we would be holding our focus group in the morning. We arrive in Leribe around dusk. First, we drive for about 20 minutes on the same 3 […]

We had an amazing visit with my good friend, Qachile, and her family yesterday. She has the cutest grandson, Bohlokoa. We brought him a soccer ball and balloons, so he warmed up to us pretty quickly…we’re shameless! Tonight we’re driving up to Leribe to stay in the LeBoHA trailers for the night since we have […]